Monday, 12 November 2007

What about the creative process ...

Creativity is described as a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts or simply the act of making something new. It is a complex phenomenon, a trait we are born with and since it involves the re-shuffling of concepts and ideas held by individuals or groups of individuals, we can be trained into using it. This is what we constantly do, otherwise we wouldn't have managed to develop as individuals or as groups of individuals. The degree to which creativity , as defined by its products, it becomes evident it is a totally different matter and it has nothing to do with the creative process as such. Usually the creative products are judged by criteria that are irrelevant to the process itself, therefore denying its presence. Someone must either be so damned modest or blind to deny creativity's very presence within himself.In simple terms what is mentioned in the Wikipedia by George Kneller, (though I do not know the person) "Creativity, it has been said, consists largely of re-arranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know.", says it all. So it is time to pull this artificial mystery veil off and start dealing with it. In a creative manner.

In a passage from the synectics theory pdf, their view of creativity, is in direct conflict with the theory that any attempt to analyse and train imagination and those aspects of the human psyche associated directly with the creative process threatens the process with destruction. In other words, true analysis of the creative process is considered impossible since if the individual attempts to examine himself in process, the process ceases immediately, and his examination is bankrupt. This theory implies that illumination is destructive. At present this prejudice seems groundless. Synectic's attempts to illuminate the creative process have resulted in several working hypotheses which are useful in practice and have increased markedly the creative output of both individuals and groups.What hinders each individual's creative potential is a weak grasp of concepts that underpin his reality. Expanding the breadth and depth of the concepts, an individual abounds by, will provide an abundance of leads for his creative nature to generate new ideas and concepts. Abiding to our conservative nature and the unwillingness that stems from it, hinders such a process and stifles creativity.